Directing Actors: some extracts

Σκηνοθετώντας Ηθοποιούς: λίγα αποσπάσματα

Getting stuck in a preconceived line reading is the worst thing that can happen to an actor.

Sometimes actors get confused and think they are being honest when they are really urging the line on us, trying to convince us that it is true. But in real life, when people are trying to convince you of the the truth of their words, we recognize that they are “protesting too much” – and probably lying.

Every one of us carries somewhere inside us the impulse (perhaps so deeply buried that it will never express itself in behavior) to do anything that any human being has ever done. It is the actor’s job to find that impulse and surrender to it honestly in the created reality. You see, he finds the impulse, not the deed itself. Because it is not real reality, it is created reality, an illusion. We, as filmmakers, are not trying to make the audience believe that the events depicted in a movie are actually happening to the actors on the screen.